DClog

Free "Free Spirit"

Last week Rachel posted a request on the GTC discussion forum for a cheap old bike she could use for commuting around Athens while she's living and going to school there. Ben D. responded with a generous offer for this free bike, which Rachel rescued from his garage and then spent most of a day restoring. Perfect.

Rachel owns a nice all-carbon road racing bike w/Shimano group, Mavic wheels, Speedplay pedals and so on, (a perk of having a Dad who races bikes) but that would make a lousy commuter and a real target for bike thiefs.

Bicycling is in many ways a superior form of transportation to automobiles. It doesn't funnel money into despotic regimes. It doesn't generate poisonous fumes. It works against this country's swelling obesity problem.

But our culture is largely antagonistic toward bike commuters. City planners mostly ignore us. A good example is the virtually useless bike lanes that lasts for all of three blocks and the DOT does not clean up.

Bicyclists share the road with drivers who are at best indifferent and sometimes hostile. We deserve better, but because we don't have major industries (auto manufacturers, highway construction) to lobby for us, we probably won't get it.

-excerpt from "The Joys of Commuting by Bicycle" at washingtonpost.com

Posted by dancoy at July 24, 2006 12:12 PM